Frequently Asked Questions

All record applications must be submitted online here. We offer a range of different services depending on your requirements including services for businesses and charities.

The Standard Application process is free-of-charge and is open to anyone wishing to attempt a record title to earn their place in Guinness World Records history.

Once your Standard Application has been reviewed and accepted, we will send you an Information Pack and Record Guidelines for the specific record you wish to attempt. You will also receive the Evidence Required pack which outlines the evidence you need to submit in order for Guinness World Records to assess the outcome of your record title attempt.

You will then need to send complete evidence by post to our offices in London -

After this, our expert Records Management Team will assess your evidence and if your attempt is verified as successful, we will send you an Official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ Record-Holder Certificate to confirm your record-holder status.

Please do not send us evidence before submitting an application as we will not be able to process it.

Guinness World Records receive over 40,000 record applications a year - that's almost 1,000 applications every week!

Due to the consistently high volume of applications we receive, the waiting times for a Standard Application are as follows:

If you are submitting an application to break an existing record title, waiting times are up to 6 weeks for us to assess your application and to review evidence after your record title attempt.

If you are submitting an application to set a new record title, waiting times are up to 12 weeks for us to assess your application and review evidence after your record title attempt. Waiting times for new proposals are longer as they require comprehensive research and investigation by our team.

If you need a speedier response, we advise that you use the Fast Track Application process. This is a paid-for service which you can select when submitting your application. You can upgrade to using this service at any time by logging back into your account.

If you are submitting an application to break an existing record title, waiting times are up to 6 weeks for us to assess your application and to review evidence after your record title attempt.

If you are submitting an application to set a new record title, waiting times are up to 12 weeks for us to assess your application and review evidence after your record title attempt. Waiting times for new proposals are longer as they require comprehensive research and investigation by our team.

If you need a speedier response, we advise that you use the Fast Track Application process which will speed up your record-application assessment and post-attempt evidence review to just 3 working days. This is a paid-for service which costs £450 (in the UK) and $700 (in the US). You can select this service when submitting your application. If you have already submitted a Standard Application and decide that you want to upgrade to the Fast Track Application service, you can do so at any time (including after your attempt).

Please note, using the Fast Track Application process does not guarantee that your application will be successful and we do not issue refunds for the priority processing fee if your application is unsuccessful.

As the unrivalled authority on record-breaking achievement, Guinness World Records aims to celebrate the world’s best and to inspire ordinary people to entertain and to inform. As such, we believe that record-breaking should be accessible to all and that’s why we offer a completely free-of-charge Standard Application service for anyone who wishes to attempt a record title. We will process your application, assess your evidence and if your attempt is successful, we will send you an official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ Record-Holder certificate to confirm your record-holder status.

Guinness World Records have an expertly trained Records Management Team who undertake substantial research and verification checks to confirm whether a new record title has been achieved.

When you submit an application, the Records Management Team carefully assess this to confirm whether or not your proposal can be accepted, and when you submit your evidence, the team will run comprehensive checks on this evidence to confirm whether it is sufficient enough to demonstrate that you have achieved the record title in question.

If you are submitting a Standard Application, it is important that you read your guidelines carefully and document all requested evidence so that our team can assess this and verify whether your attempt has been successful.

We also provide on-the-spot verification which involves an official Guinness World Records Judge being present when you attempt your record title. If you choose to invite a judge to attend your record attempt, your record application and guidelines will be processed immediately and you will not need to submit evidence. This is a paid-for service with prices starting from £4,500 (in the UK) or $8,000 (in the US).

Guinness World Records only recognises WORLD records. We do not verify national / country specific achievements.

All Guinness World Records record titles must fulfil key criteria including:

1. Measurable - Is it the fastest / longest / heaviest / most?
2. Breakable - Can the record be broken or repeated by someone else? All our record titles must be open to being challenged.
3. Standardizable - Can the record title be done universally? For example, it cannot be related to something restricted to a region.
4. Verifiable - Can the claim be proven? For example, a claim such as ‘the man who never drank water’, can never be verified unless the man spent his whole life from birth under surveillance by a witness.
5. One Variable – We can verify the Largest painting but would not consider the largest painting by the most people.
6. Absolute records not categories - For example, Fastest 100metre sprint but not the fastest 100 metre sprint by a Fireman
7. Universal - The proposal must be something, or about something that is known to the world’s majority. It cannot be too specific / regional.

Beyond that, the world of record-breaking is wonderfully diverse and as broad as your imagination!

We assess each and every application that we receive - but many cannot be recognised as a world record.

Some of the activities that we do not recognise include those which are not sufficiently challenging, are too specific to an individual or anything that is unbreakable.

Guinness World Records does not endorse the following:

Unsuitable activities or those which could cause potential harm danger to spectators and animals.

We do not permit people under the age of 16 to attempt or to hold record titles which are considered unsuitable for minors. In these instances, Guinness World Records works closely in association with the official regulatory body for the particular skill / sport.

As the world's unrivalled authority on record-breaking achievement, our role is to celebrate the world’s best, to inspire ordinary people and to entertain and inform.

For these reasons, we do not pay record-breakers for their achievements or for carrying out a record title attempt. We are also unable to cover any expenses, offer sponsorship or provide equipment for anyone attempting a record.

Some of the most frequently broken records include the Longest DJ marathon, the Heaviest item lifted with glue and the Most apples bobbed in one minute!
Another record that is broken regularly is the Oldest person in the world. But the oldest person ever remains Jeanne Louise Calment who lived to be an incredible 122 years and 164 days old.

The individual who holds the most Guinness World Records titles is Mr. Ashrita Furman. He is attempting and breaking records all the time, but at last count he had more than 125 current Guinness World Records titles. Those include the records for long-distance pogo-stick jumping, most glasses balanced on the chin, most hop-scotch games in 24 hours and fastest time to pogo-stick up the CN Tower.

Guinness World Records Ltd. are headquartered in London, England. We also have regional offices in China, Dubai (UAE), New York (US) and Tokyo (Japan). We have 65 officially trained Guinness World Records Judges situated across 9 countries, speaking 11 languages. These countries include all our regional offices as well as Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Paraguay and Turkey.

- If you are submitting evidence and for any other postal correspondence, please send to:

There are more than 40,000 current records in our database, however due to space constraints, we can only publish around 4,000 records in the book each year which always makes it a tough decision for our editorial team and editor-in-chief!

If your record hasn't been selected for publication, there's always chance that it may be included in future editions, or it may appear on our official website.

There are more than 40,000 current records in our database and we try our best to feature as many as possible online. We currently include approx 11,000 records online which we update every week, so make sure to check the site regularly!

For any record titles associated with large amounts of food, our Record Guidelines stipulate that it must either be consumed or distributed for consumption after it has been measured. As with all record titles, the Record Guidelines must be adhered to in order to be considered a successful Guinness World Records record title.